EDITORIAL: N. Korea nuke talk has to end

July 27 will mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting in the Korean War.

Unfortunately, that piece of paper never really ended the conflict on the Asian peninsula where nearly 34,000 U.S. military personnel died from 1950 to 1953.

We were reminded of that last week when the U.N. Security Council, for the fourth time, hammered communist North Korea with sanctions for refusing to abandon its nuclear program, leading that rogue country to overtly threaten a nuclear attack on the U.S.

North Korea ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1985; and in a 1992 agreement with South Korea pledged not to produce, test or use nuclear weapons. However, it withdrew from the treaty in 2003 and since 2006 has conducted three nuclear tests, the last one in February. In December, it launched what it called a “weather satellite” on top of a ballistic missile.

All that was in direct defiance of Security Council resolutions. Prior U.N. sanctions against North Korea were ineffective. The latest ones, which were adopted unanimously, are brutal, basically targeting anything that could be used to further the country’s nuclear and missile programs.

They also have the backing of China, which for years has been one of North Korea’s few friends, if not its No. 1 benefactor, but doesn’t need this nonsense from its pesky pal as it continues cleaning up its own act and transitioning to a market economy.

North Korea’s response was predictable. It’s threatened to cancel the 1953 armistice and other various agreements while telling its military to mobilize for “all-out war.” It also vowed to retaliate if another country steps a toe across its border, and it’s promised to engulf Washington in a “sea of (nuclear) fire.”

No one thinks it’s presently capable of following up on the last threat, although you tend to take notice when someone says he’s going to nuke you (and the U.S. made sure to point out its defensive capabilities against any attack).

It’s all a lot of bluster right now. Once the bluster dissipates and North Korea feels the pain of these latest sanctions and sees how united the world community is here, we hope it gets the message (maybe with a little ear-whispering from China) that its nuclear pretensions have to go.